October 11, 2004

MISSED OUT ON MEDICARE GOLD?

How on earth could we have put this scheming, mendacious little man and his miserable claque back in office for another three years? Worse, how could we have brought them to the very brink of absolute control of the nation's entire parliamentary process and authority?

Very easily, as things turned out, to the cost of the rest of us and our national self-respect.

For almost nine years this Government, incompetent in most everything except mediocrity, debauched its word and the people's trust, along with voters' gullibility, their ignorance, their taxes and, in the end, their greedy self-interest.

UPDATE. Tim Lambert claims that “the election was not about Iraq -- it was hardly an issue.” Oh, yes it was, and it was made so by Lambert and his fellow leftoids:

One week away from a knife-edge election, Australian Prime Minister John Howard declared yesterday he would be re-elected on October 9, but only just, as anti-Iraq war rallies urged voters to throw him out of office.

As Howard campaigned in Sydney yesterday, an airplane skywriter delivered a message, "Not happy, John," although the wind quickly blew the words away, and protesters took to the streets to oppose his sending troops to the U.S.-led Iraq war.

"We are saying Howard should be brought to justice at the poll next Saturday - this is where people can throw him out of office," said Pip Hinman, during a march by about 2,000 people in Sydney.

Protests were also staged in Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.

Not an issue ... please. The whole "John Howard lies!" campaign was based on Iraq. Do you think if Latham had won Lambert would imagine for a second that Iraq had nothing to do with it?

I'm seeing these reports of how the Leftists are 'coping', or is it NOT, with the results of this election.

I suspect that if the results of the balloting are similar over here, we'll see a repeat of their (mis)conduct and misconstruings here as well. Maybe even worse, considering that some of Dem have been shooting up the Republican offices of late.

Keep the information coming. Also, reports of any violence against the elected officials.

Latham will never be Prime Minister,
his madness can be covered up for a couple of months, but not for three years and as the government puts the screws into Labor and they eventually disintegrate, Latham's lunacy will be there for all to see. We got a couple of shots of it, the "face down" with Howard on the eve of the election (idiotic school boy rot), the calling out from the background when the co-sponsor of his Goldcad garbage was launched.

The decimation of the Labor party will proceed into the next three years, we need to make Beazley's nightmare a reality.

How on earth could we have put this scheming, mendacious little man and his miserable claque back in office for another three years?

I've almost overdosed on schadenfreude these last 24 hours. It's been an absolute freakin' hoot to listen to all these howler monkeys frothing at the mouth.

I was at work yesterday, and a colleague of mine... the first thing he did when he came in was to launch into a loud tirade about how stupid Australians are, and how we have elected a liar and a racist as Prime Minister, how we’ve sold our future, blah blah blah blah fucking blah. He was pointing and gesticulating and everything. He looked like Mussolini on speed.

I think the point is valid about Iraq being an issue to the Left, but not enough people evidently thought the same way. Like many of the other Leftist strategies during this campaign, they came to believe too much in their own spin - they WANTED Iraq to be an issue because they thought they could win on it. When it came to the ballot box, however, voters decided that either it wasn't an issue, or they agreed with the Coalition's GWOT policy. In either case, Labor miscalculated once again based upon their own misconceptions of what the electorate actually felt.

"...Labor miscalculated once again based upon their own misconceptions of what the electorate actually felt." -- ozwitch

Or it could be that they were attempting to imprint their views on everybody else, most especially the undecided/swing voters. Sort of like a latter day application of the infamous Big Lie; keep telling them over and over again what you want them to believe and they'll believe it.

However, in this age of massive communication and cross-checking, where there is no more monopoly on information held by the priests of the press, that is difficult to do. And espeically if people are not as poorly educated as the Leftists would like.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. -- Abraham Lincoln]

Bravo, Alan Ramsey. At last someone has put the blame on who’s really to blame here; not the Latham campaign, but the ignorant and greedy members of our society. This government has been re-elected by small-minded mammon–worshippers and ignoramuses who fell for the interest rate scare. We ‘wasn’t robbed by a liar’, we was robbed by an uninterested and ill-informed public who can’t see past their own selfish needs. A well informed and virtuous (in the classic sense of the word) person could never vote for the rodent.

"A well informed and virtuous (in the classic sense of the word) person could never vote for the rodent." -- Greg

...are such a great mind. So well educated. All those ignorant, greedy, small-minded morons you have to associate with every day. It must be a real burdern. As no one can compare to your genius, eh Wile E.?

Ramsey has absolutely lost it! Along with all the other left wingers trying to rationalise this result. I think Hugh Mackay in today's SMH gave a good wrap up when he commented that this election was decided long ago. To quote James Carville "It's the economy, stupid!".

In addition, Labour is stuck in the past and it's platform is of no relevance to the majority of people. They also made some cataclysmic blunders. The good news is that they seem to be in denial so they will go and make the same mistakes all over again in 2007!

Also, I am sick and tired off all this humbug about what a bunch of stupid, greedy, bastards we all are for voting in our own self interest. Nonsense! That is the only sane and moral thing to do! Critics are either guilty of breathtaking hypocrisy (did they vote against their own interests?) or morally depraved (altruism = death, see Ayn Rand for more details).

I'm no great fan of Howard, but returning Labour just to get rid of him would have been an act of extreme folly. The Australian electorate is sophisticated enough to make a considered judgment within the limits of an imperfect political system.

I wondered about this on the weekend and now it's popped in someone's comments on the Sydney Mangeled Herald today:

As a swinging voter, my pendulum stopped dead when i witnessed "the handshake". I could never vote for a absolute thug that would act so aggressively. The whole "staredown" thing sent shivers up my spine as I imagined this man in power. Kim Beazley would have got my vote in a flash!

The Handshake made me think I'd inadvertently changed channels and was watching a backstage encounter between Randy Orton and Triple H on Monday Night RAW. Further to that point, it's usually pretty easy to figure out who the bad guy is in professional wrestling, and the case was no different here.

I mentioned elsewhere that The Handshake will come to be seen the same way as Alpha Gore's attempt to intimidate Bush during the 2000 presidential debates - as the moment he symbolically lost the election campaign.

Oh, but that's right ... Latham won the campaign even though he lost the election. He just happened to go from an 8-point lead in the polls to a 5-point deficit. Which must mean The Handshake was a brilliant strategic move reminiscent of these classics:

* "Leave my family out of this! *sob*"
* "We can continue to talk about all the fatty foods you want to shove down your throat, Laurie."
* "I want my son to grow up hating John Howard personally."
* "I still view the people of Northern Sydney as my class enemies."
* "Supercilious c--t."

Bloody media. If only they'd reported these gems more prominently, Labor would currently command 100+ seats in the Reps, along with 55% of the 2PP and one of its highest primary vote since federation.

I've got a laugh at all the 'stay at home' leftists who still argue that Australia should not fight anyone elses battles though label others as being 'selfish' in going to war in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

I voted Liberal even though I'm a member of the ALP. I couldn't stand anymore the liar liar crap. The lines about 40,000 women and children dead because of Howard - even thought they mainly get blown up by their own people - who do all this to utilise the media. The ALP people buy it and they call me stupid and ignorant.

God, I love lefties! They're the champions of the common people - until the uppity peasants vote against the will of their paternalistic betters. Then they're ignorant, selfish, gullible, stupid... and the elitist and arrogant classism of the leftist comes shining through.

The Internet and blogging comment boxes have shone a light onto a type of thinking we all knew about but had rarely seen in such force. You could easily collect hundreds of comments along the line of "Australians are mindless dickheads for voting Liberal" from the ABC, SMH and Chris Sheil's Back Pages alone. It's been a revelation even to me.

That Alan Ramsey engages in the same thing shows what a gutless, tired, old has been he really is. Christ, can't he come up with something better than that?

I thought I'd never say it, but Hugh Mackay is I think bang on the money: the election was decided a long time ago. And I think the next one is being decided right now. Being called a selfish retard because you voted for Howard is not an argument that will win many to Labor's cause. Oddly enough, the ALP high-ups seem to be quite content to let this go on by buying into the "we wuz robbed" bs.

American question here - If I understand correctly, a party with 72 seats gets to choose the Prime Minister. http://vtr.aec.gov.au/ shows Liberal holding 71 seats, but there are 5 seats classified "doubtful". Should one of these doubtful seats go to the Liberal party, does the Liberal party need their coalition with the National party anymore?

American question here - If I understand correctly, a party with 72 seats gets to choose the Prime Minister. http://vtr.aec.gov.au/ shows Liberal holding 71 seats, but there are 5 seats classified "doubtful". Should one of these doubtful seats go to the Liberal party, does the Liberal party need their coalition with the National party anymore?

The necessary majority is 76 (out of a total 150 seats). As far as I understand things (I'm not an Aussie either), the Libs/Nationals coalition isn't a coalition in the traditional European sense, i.e. with parties aligning differently after each election, but rather a sort of combined ticket.

I know this example probably won't help much *G* but it seems roughly equivalent to what the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union are doing in Germany...the CSU runs only in Bavaria, the CDU only in the rest of Germany, so while both are technically different tickets, they're always one combined faction in the national parliament (even though pols of both parties like to threaten a break-up from time to time).

Anyway, I believe the CLP (Northern Territory Party) is part of the coalition also, as neither the Liberals nor the Nationals were running candidates in the Territory.

(i) Most voters seemed to understand the simple point that a vote for Howard was a vote for lower interest rates. This means that the average voter is much smarter than the average professional economist.

(ii) Alan Ramsey is not only a crazed lunatic, he is a stupid moron who does not understand the preferential voting system.

(ii) Margo's slogan for the next campaign - "Really Not Happy John". For the one after that - "Really, Really Not Happy John".

dsmtoday,
Good question but suppose you were a Republican voter but your party was really two parties(big RepCity and much smaller RepCountry)which had enjoyed a long partnership opposed to Democrats. You often governed in coalition. If you were a RepCity voter and finally that party had a mandate in its own right over the Dems, would you be happy to ditch your old mates in RepCountry?

I spent Saturday night with a bunch of ALP voters who hadn't seen or heard anything or the count. I left my place at 7.30pm , so already knew how Tassie was looking, and checked results through the night by phone (mobile WAP finally good for something).

By 11 pm, I was loudly telling a pubful of my wife's lefty friends and assorted pommie backpackers waiting for the England vs. Wales soccer match that Latham fucked up totally by kissing Bob Brown's arse for a bunch of preferences he was going to get anyway. Tell me how many Green voters were ever going to preference the Libs ahead of the ALP.

Shortly after the game started , I got off politics and went on about soccer being a wanker's game - England vs. Wales in rugby, now that's worth seeing.

If Latham had half a brain, he would have told Bob Brown to go fuck himself, that his voters' preferences are coming Labor's way before they'll ever go Liberal.

Some people still don't get it. One of my wife's lefty friends (a social worker, no less) told me that Latham's overtures to the Greens were a brilliant long-term strategy to capitalise on a global trend. No future for the ALP in blue collar workers and lower-middle class. Better to go buying middle-class votes with working-class jobs. i.e. the same middle-class votes you were going to get for free anyway.

The clearest global trend this Boy from Broadmeadows (Melbourne's Green Valley?) could discern on Saturday night was driving home in my new SUV, and seeing how many of the darn things there are on the road.

Ramsay is a 24 carat wanker. For the second time he has called the election wrong. He was sure Hewson and Latham would win - the 2 guys anyone with half a brain knew were going to lose.

The dickhead has let his personal hatred of Howard get in the way of dispassionate commentary. It is time Ramsay left the building because he is no longer sufficiently independent. C'mon Fairfax show your respect for democracy and fair reporting.

Ramsay my old toad: plenty of planes leave Australia every day and I'm sure all the airlines would take your money. I'm sure Kim Il Jong or Jiang Zemin would be happy to have you reporting for one of their daily papers. You'd fit in very well.

As Paul Sheehan said the left is gearing up for a 3 year assault on Howard the likes of which we have never seen. Their efforts post 2001 brought them a bucket full of shit so they will go all out this time to make sure Howard's legacy is as tarnished as possible. They have spent 40 years bashing Menzies' reputation.

What does the SMH think it is doing. Opinion piece or not the venom and distortions of that article should and do reflect that papers view of Australians. They printed it.
Are they declaring war on the rest of Australia.
Agree with you KLein that they won't be able to hold him together for the next three years. He couldn't even last the election campaign without losing it (almost Liverpool kiss, certainly verging on assault again). Anybody seen or heard him since.

Latham and Alan Ramsay should be careful who they try to insult.
Latham has to learn that one treads carefully on the way up because you do not know whom you will meet on the way down.
Ramsay- the more you rave the more you make a case for the opposite.
The world has changed since you belonged to the uni clarett drinking socialist club and it demonstrates that you should not mix alchohol with pot and fags. Shrinks the brain and impairs vision
The Blue collars are more buttoned down plumbers/ electricians. carpenters are more likely to be subbies and small business men. Nurse have degrees. We all have share in the big companies thru our superfunds, so have a vested interest in them maintaining profits-and all the bank bashing makes me sick. I want them to keep making big profits otherwise you will have to work twice as hard to keep me when forced onto a pension. what the hell do you think self funded retirees live on saving the tax payer heaps, and most of us are not much better off than on the pension and get non of the perks. We accept that -but do not dare to tell us that we are selfish, greedy or uncaring.
I and my friends give at least 500 dollars each, a year to charity from Medicin San Frontieres- the Salvos, unicef and cancer research. I give and buy from my op shop- what do you do?
We do think and assess and that it is precisely why John Howard is PRIME Minister and Peter Costello will follow him - you better believe

The alliance between the Liberal and National parties dates back decades; I think it might even go back to the founding of the Liberal party in the 1940s.

It is so much a fact of the Australian political landscape that the two parties are often described simply as "The Coalition".

As a rule, each of the parties does not contest seats in the other party's "home" areas; for the Liberals these are generally the urban areas, and for the Nationals the rural.

Voters who vote for their local Liberal or National candidate are fully aware that should their Member be elected, they will vote in Parliament for a Liberal Prime Minister and a National Deputy PM.

Dissolving The Coalition would require each party to build up organisations to contest the next election in areas they presently leave to the other, using resources which both parties would probably prefer to husband for campaigning against the ALP.

Of course, sometimes - usually at State level - the leader of the dominant Coalition party lets his ego get the better of him and decides he doesn't need the Coalition when he has a short-term majority. This never ends well for the conservative side of politics.

John Howard is too canny an operator to throw away the Coalition just because he doesn't need it right now. (Even if he was, his likely control of the Senate will in any case depend on the votes of National senators.)

I think it might even go back to the founding of the Liberal party in the 1940s.

Earlier than that, 1922.

It was first formed between the Nationalist Party and the Country Party. The Country Party managed to secure Billy Hughes resignation as PM as part of the Coalition deal (they distrusted his socialist background) and made Stanley Bruce the PM.

The two parties have remained in Coalition basically ever since, though the Nationalist party became the United Australia Party which became the Liberal Party, and the Country Party became the National Country Party and then the National Party.

Here's a good history of the Coalition from the perspective of the Nationals

I love how Ramsey just HOWLS about how only 46% of the voters voted for the Coalition...as if there's some "travesty of justice" in them being returned to power without scoring more votes that ALL THE OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES COMBINED!

For almost nine years this Government, incompetent in most everything except mediocrity, debauched its word and the people's trust, along with voters' gullibility, their ignorance, their taxes and, in the end, their greedy self-interest.

Like Secret said, where's Rudd hiding? In a back room somewhere with his numbers men, perhaps? Latham called the leadership vote in a BIG hurry, almost like he wanted to reassert his leadership before his shocked-troops had a chance for any unseemly introspection.

If you guys want a great cackle and a collection of all leftist dogmatic cliches in one place go to this (usually) football-related message board at : http://forums.magpies.net/hotrod/

Under a thread I started titled "Conno, MG and I won't gloat" you will find a few hours worth of classis leftist loser angst and self-hate combined with generous helpings of the contempt and derision for normal Australians which have driven the left to the black hole of oblivion they currently occupy.

If you do go there please respect that this is a forum for regulars and whilst amusing yourselves by reading the stuff please refrain from posting in case I am again accused of leading some takeover from the forces of the wast right wing conspiracy.

Ros — Sounds like the SMH's view of the rest of Australia is pretty much how the NY Times sees everybody living west of the Hudson River… e.g, the way last humans see the oncoming zombies in a George Romero movie...

Lincoln was misquoted as are so many politicians. What he actually said was, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and you can fool all of the people some of the time. That is enough, most of the time."